Concrete for energy-efficient buildings

Concrete is an established, dependable and well-understood building material that is used across Europe for a range of building types. Its most common applications in buildings are floors at ground or upper floor levels, structural frames (i.e. beams, columns and slabs), external and internal walls, including panels, blocks or decorative elements and roof tiles. Concrete is extremely versatile in terms of its structural and material properties, which is one of the reasons for its success. The majority of buildings use heavyweight, or dense concrete, which is known for its strength, fire protection, sound insulation and, increasingly, for its thermal mass. The European Concrete Platform, an alliance of the European branch associations representing the concrete industry (precast and ready mixed concrete) and its main constituents cement and concrete admixtures, recently published a brochure “Concrete for energy-efficient buildings – The benefits of thermal mass”. This article summarizes some of the keynotes of this brochure.

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